President to visit new Flight 93 memorial for 9/11 remembrance

Jazz ShawPosted at 8:01 am on September 11, 2018

As America gathers to mourn the fallen from the worst terrorist attack in our history, President Trump will be heading to Shanksville, Pennsylvania to commemorate the day at the newly opened Flight 93 Memorial in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, PA. This seems to be a fitting choice to me because traditionally, most of the attention is focused on the Pentagon and, of course, the site of the Twin Towers in New York City. The story of Flight 93 is an inspirational one, commemorated in a well received movie in 2006. (You should check it out if you missed it when it was released.) The memorial service today will take place at 11:45. (AP)

President Donald Trump is marking 17 years since the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil by visiting the Pennsylvania field that became a Sept. 11 memorial.

Trump and his wife, Melania, were participating in Tuesday’s somber remembrance in Shanksville. It’s where hijackers crashed a California-bound commercial airliner on Sept. 11, 2001, after the 40 passengers and crew members learned what was happening and attempted to regain control of the aircraft. Everyone on board was killed.

The new memorial has 40 massive wind chimes, honoring the lives lost when the plane went down as passengers struck back, fighting to regain control of the aircraft. A significant crowd is expected.

If there’s anything left that can unite our ideologically fractured country, it’s our dedication to never forgetting the horrors of 9/11. This is also a suitable reminder that the war against those who brought down the towers that day is not over and will likely not end in our lifetimes or even those of our children. We’re still at war in Afghanistan and while the original structure of al Qaeda may be splintered, they have inspired other Islamic extremists to form their own terror groups around the globe. ISIS is probably the worst of them, but they have sympathetic partners on nearly every continent. If we fail to remain vigilant, we could see more large-scale attacks in the future.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit the Flight 93 Memorial, check out this brief video. It’s a time-lapse film from the construction site which compresses eight years of work into a three-minute segment.